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Terry Gilliam’s films swing from unwatchable (The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus) to genius (Brazil). This one jitterbugs somewhere in between.

Oscar winner Christoph Waltz is Qohen, a delusional recluse and computer genius who lives in a fire-damaged monastery. Qohen works for Mancom, a mega corporation led by Management (Matt Damon), who charges him with proving the ‘zero theorem’ that the universe will eventually implode into nothingness.

The movie’s dystopian universe may have originated in the mind of Pat Rushin but it’s unmistakably branded with Gilliam’s trademark, mechanically powered, anti-authoritarian retro-futurism. In-joke nods to his masterpiece Brazil may only highlight this as an inferior Day-glo copy but David Thewlis and teen newcomer Lucas Hedges provide sturdy lifeboats amid the eccentric flights of fancy.

Meanwhile, Mélanie Thierry, as a cyber-sex callgirl, does her best to preserve dignity in a skin-tight rubber nurse’s fetish outfit. It suggests Gilliam is no more able to write decent, well-rounded parts for women than his fellow Pythons were in the 1960s.